


Keeping the Lights On

by AceQueenKing



Category: Star Wars: Battlefront (Video Games)
Genre: Engineering, Just Two Engineering Nerds Bonding Over Engineering, M/M, Moving On, Rebellion vs Imperial Culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-19
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-13 23:47:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13581513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/pseuds/AceQueenKing
Summary: The Rebellion's crumbling infrastructure makes Del Meeko gather his courage and actually talk to Luke, even if he's not entirely comfortable talking to a hero.





	Keeping the Lights On

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spookykingdomstarlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookykingdomstarlight/gifts).



The Rebellion was not like the Empire.

Where the Empire was one sprawling monolith, so dazzlingly tall that Del Meeko could barely understand it, the Rebellion - and, by virtue of genetics, the new Republic that had arisen from it - was scattershot, hidden in corners and shadows. In the Imperial Navy, he would have had had unlimited contacts - and plenty of unwritten rules about how to use them. In the Republic, there was no way to directly consult with someone whose number you did not have; it was all in who you knew.

And Del Meeko knew few. But still, he knew Iden.

And Iden, he discovered, was nothing if not industrious when it came to finding him dates.

"Are you serious?" He asked, gawking, as she handed him a slip of flimsi, a few digits scratched into it by a hand that was definitively not her own. This hand had practiced writing, flawless; it was a hand that said, so much as it said anything, that it had practiced aurebesh until they could write it in the middle of a firefight - which, given the singed mark on the flimsi, was highly likely where this piece had originated.

Iden winked. Del was glad she'd defected with him; he could face down Hask, but Iden...Iden was terrifying as an opponent. She was only _slightly_ less terrifying as a best friend.

"From the Princess herself," she said with a dazzling smile. "She said to hurry up and call. Something about Luke needing to haul his ass up here." Her face softened, those brown eyes almost pitying. "She thinks Luke needs a distraction."

He took the digits, clumsily, then memorized them. In the Rebellion, no the Republic - he learned, it was important to try to memorize things when you could; there weren't vast databanks of handbooks, of different protocols for any situation. He'd wished he'd been able to download a few of those before he'd left; they were short a lot of techs in the Reb-Republic, and lord knows education would help. Maybe that was something he could do for the Republic, when the shooting was done; teach the next generation how to keep a generator going.

"I will - I will try my best," he said. She grasped his arm and smiled one of those Iden smiles that somehow communicated everything he needed to know without actually using words: _you got this_. He'd told her of his strange encounter with the Jedi, of course; she was his superior officer. But he hadn't thought she'd noticed how much he'd quite fancied Luke Skywalker, and now, the knowing smile - it was made plain.

Well, at least she approved.

With hesitant hands, he dialed the chain of numbers into his holocommunicator. That was another thing he'd, unfortunately, learned in the Rebellion: take your chance, because it's unlikely there will be another. The communications weren't exactly stable - and the more he thought about that, about the way things in the Republic winked out as quickly as they came on - the less he liked it. It spoke of a fragility that he didn't like to think about - as if being a good man was, somehow, wholly incompatible with keeping the lights on.

But, granted, it had made him take chances he might have put off, had he still been on the other side. He would dial now; the connection to Luke's holocommunicator might not be active tomorrow.

And neither of them might be alive tomorrow.

Ducking into a more private hallway - the Reb- _Republic_ , dammit!- too, had different ideas of "privacy"; if he wasn't in the 'fresher, he wasn't alone. It was nothing like the _Corvus_ had once been, where silence reigned and he'd had his own bunk, never shared; a different thing entirely, and generally a welcome difference, but for the matters of the heart, Del still treasured privacy.

He listened to the holo-static crackle, eyes watching and wondering if the image in the static could tell him anything; where Luke was, what he was doing. He knew Skywalker was a Jedi - anyone who'd been assigned to the Death Squadron for more than two seconds knew Skywalker was a Jedi - but he did not know what, exactly, a Jedi did.

Judging by the Imperial propaganda he'd been swallowing since childhood - not much. But then, so much of that was wrong.

The image coalesced quickly; there was Skywalker, the blonde head tilted downward, the sparkling blue of his eyes hidden - but Del could see the spanner in his hand. Del tried to make out what he was working on - but other than the spanner, the image was too blurry to make out.

"Leia," he said, not bothering to look up. "I just told you - "

"I'm not Leia," Del said; his breath was a ghostly whisper and he winced _. Way to sound like you're a confident Rebel officer, hotshot._

"Oh!" Luke looked up, startled; the spanner went down. He stared at Del as if he was staring through all time and space for a moment, and then a serene smile lit up on his face, resembling nothing so much as a sun rising through the dark of the night. "Well. If it isn't my friend from Pillio!"

"Del," he said, awkwardly saluting. "I'm surprised you remember me." And he was. The Jedi had been a notable companion for sure, and one he'd thought of often since Pillio. But, he suspected, Luke Skywalker: man, myth, _legend_ , had many people more important to remember than a no-name imperial grunt, even a grunt from the special ops.

"I remember your name, Del Meeko," Luke Skywalker said, an amused smile on his lips. "I'm Luke. Sorry for assuming you were my - Leia." Del wondered what the slip-up signified, and perhaps more importantly, what word was omitted: best friend? sister? conspirator? - but Skywalker shrugged. "No one else generally calls my line."

"Uh, I definitively remember your name," Del said, then blushed, because just about the entire galaxy knew Luke Skywalker's name; Jedi Knight, destroyer of the Emperor and Vader both. He'd never met either man, but knew through whispers they were formidable, and somehow, this unassuming gentle man - who had  _indeed_  dispatched all his stormtroopers he'd brought with him to Pillio, cleanly, neatly, and efficiently- had brought order to the galaxy.

It was...humbling.

And he was very, very aware from the look on Luke Skywalker's face, that he was expecting Del to say more.

"I uh - well," Del ran his hands through his hair and tried to decide how to ask a hero on a date. "I have this friend Iden, who's friends with General Organa, and - "

"I see you've changed teams," Skywalker said; Del looked down and saw his own orange jumpsuit and about slapped his head. _Get a hold_ on _yourself, Meeko; he's just a man, underneath it all._

"Oh, yes, I - " He sighed, chuckling to himself. Mother-of-pigs, if Hask could see how he got tongue-tied now! On second thought - maybe it was better Hask couldn't. "I did some thinking. And I made a choice to be better."

"I see," Luke said, tilting his head to the side. "How do you feel about it?"

Del thought of what to say for a few moments; there were trite niceties enough he could name, and certainly had heard from dozens of fellow pilots; _doing the right thing, conscious guilt-free, freedom and hope, oo-rah_. But none of those were how he felt, and Luke was - well, Del barely knew him, but could tell he was a man who appreciated honesty.

"Terrified," he said, as soft as he could. "The Empire is trying to eat itself as fast as it can, and the Republic has nice morals but - " He stiffened as the lights overhead went out for a moment, before coming on. "Well..."

"Not the best infrastructure," Luke said. He held his arm and Del froze; the arm ended, abruptly, in a burned stump, long-cauterized. It must have shown because Luke looked down and then back to Del. "Pardon."

He heard the soft click of a prosthetic and Luke Skywalker waved his fingers, metallic and bare. It was old tech; not quite clone wars, but certainly not from the height of the Empire, either. It was outdated and stunningly fragile on a man who appeared to be nothing if not strong. "The servos are getting stuck. They  _hate_ sand."

"I'm sorry," Del said. "I didn't mean - I didn't realize - "

"Lots of people don't." Luke smiled, but there was sadness at the edges of it. He wondered how Luke had got that wound - but Del knew of only one weapon hot enough to cauterize like that. 

Del stared away from the camera for a moment and could see from the corner of his eyes that Luke did the same, both perhaps thinking of other things.

"Have you tried isolating the servos with plasti-wire? That would help isolate them from granular-"

"We do need to improve the infrastructure - I've told Leia I'll grab more power converters but if we don't - "

They both stopped and looked at one another. Luke laughed, and Del did too.

"I've thought of it but putting on plasti-wire with my non-dominant hand would be - "

"If you bring power converters I can try to keep some of the old infrastructure tech running- "

"My, we seem to be eager," Luke said, shaking his head. There was a smile on his lips, and Del's heart leaped - he was, at least, amusing to Skywalker. 

"Sorry, I have a lot of ideas and well - it's quite different from the Empire here." Del scratched his chin. "I _might_ be over-eager."

"Well, it sounds like you and I have some catching up to do." Luke moved his hand toward the holocommunicator and looked at Del, really looked. This was a test, he could tell, and Del was determined to pass it.  Del didn't look away, watching the other man's placid eyes.

"I've got to finish out this mission but I'll be reporting back to Theed after this." Luke smiled. "Are you still there with Leia?"

"We're stationed here, for now," he said. "Not sure how long."

"I'll make it quick," Luke said, with a sly wink. Del had little doubt that he could and would. "Maybe we could spend an evening working on trying to improve the power grid there?"

"Sounds great, and I think I could get your hand a bit more protected against the elements unless - " Del, suddenly aware of how forward it sounded. "Unless you're uh, uncomfortable with that."

There were mechanics in the empire who would have shot him for assuming less.

"I look forward to talking shop," Luke said, his eyes sparkling. "And perhaps a good deal more than that. You ever had _Shaak_?"

"No sir," he said. "Wasn't served much on Coruscant."

"Well, we'll have to change that." Luke stretched, seemingly relaxed, and Del watched the grace of his movements; he could understand why Darth Vader had become obsessed with this one; he burned brightly with some ethereal grace that Luke could hardly contain and Del couldn't stop watching. "I make a mean steak."

"I'll bring whats left of my special forces rations and...some wine, if that's not too mu- "

" _Do_ ," Luke said, quietly. "Nothing more fun than drunken electrical wiring, right?"

"Sounds like a lovely date," Del said, laughing, then realized he really wasn't joking.

"I'm looking forward to it," Luke said, winking. "I'll be in touch. Can I reach you on this holo-communicator line?"

"As long as it lasts." Del put his hand to his heart and tried to smile, tried to believe that it would last as long as he wanted it to.

"May the Force be with you, Luke," he said; he'd known little of the Jedi but he had known that. The response from Luke was immediate, a wide grin, one that lasted even as the call faded - whether Skywalker had cut it or there had been another power disruption, Del did not know.

Del searched around in his pack and pulled out a spanner.

It was time to get back to work. 

The Rebellion was not the Empire he had left but, perhaps, they could make the New Republic the nation the Empire Del had wanted to have. 


End file.
